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Stanislav Gross (born October 30 , 1969 in Prague ) is a Czech politician, member of the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD). He served as minister of the interior (2000 - 2004) and as Prime Minister Of The Czech Republic (2004 - 2005). EARLY POLITICAL CAREER Gross shortly worked for the state railways company ( České Dráhy ) as an engine-driver trainee. After the Velvet Revolution in 1989, he became a member of the Social Democratic party and in 1992 member of the parliament. After studies of law from 1993 - 1999 he obtained an academic title, although under less than usual conditions. MINISTER OF INTERIOR On April 5 , 2000 he was named interior minister in the government of Miloš Zeman . After elections in 2002, Gross continued as interior minister and became deputy prime minister in the government of Vladimír Špidla . During his service, several scandals in the police had leaked out: corruption among the highest officials, irregularities in business tenders, and failure to solve serial murders. Gross claimed this is due to a better ability to discover such behaviour within the police force. Gross was also criticized for installing his friends and allies as executives in state-owned companies and for misuse of secret services for political aims. In spite of these problems, Gross was able to maintain higher popularity than other politicians (its peak was over 70%). His youthful, photogenic appearance, skill in dealing with media and unwillingness to get involved in controversial decisions or discussions helped. PRIME MINISTER In the 2004 EP Election , ČSSD lost badly and the popularity of the party was low; this led to the resignation of Špidla on July 26. Gross was appointed prime minister on August 4 , 2004 and his government on August 24 . Gross was seen by his party as the last way to regain popularity and handle better future elections. This was proved wrong; in elections into regional assembly and Senate elections, Social Democrats failed again. His popularity started to decline and involvement in new scandals (e.g., taking people from the former communist secret service as coworkers, another wave of corruption in the police, suspicion regarding the privatization of state companies) accelerated the decline. Gross claimed he would modernize the party similar to Tony Blair 's recipe, but his short time in service and constant involvement with scandals did not give him any time to implement any changes. SCANDAL Since January 2005, Gross has been facing a scandal related to unclear origins of the loan to buy his flat. It was found that his wife has a business association with a brothel owner suspected of insurance fraud and money laundering1. Criticism from media and record dissatisfaction of the public grew into a government crisis. For three months, Gross tried to keep himself in power until he was forced to resign on April 25 , 2005 . Popularity of his sunk to a record low, and trust in politicians among Czech people was shattered. Only the fact that even such a powerful politician was, at the end, forced to step down was seen as a positive side of the whole scandal. In September 2005 Gross stepped down from remaining position of party leader. The reason was growing suspicion about massive corruption during privatisation of chemical conglomerate Unipetrol to Polish PKN Orlen , involving Gross&2. His further political career is unlikely. 1This person was later sentenced for insurance fraud to five years in prison. She claims it is the result of conspiration {Link without Title} . &2 Gross denies all accusations as an absurd conspiration against him {Link without Title} . EXTERNAL LINKS
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